Andrew Tarnawczyk – For The Love

Film's Not Dead

August 28, 2017

We’re excited to introduce Andrew Tarnawczyk, the fifth winner of twelve in our competition ‘For the Love’ with Kodak.

Tarnawczyk is a London based photographer and a BA graduate from Edinburgh College, with a recognisable style and unique way of seeing the world.

His interest in fashion, portraiture and bizarre set ups has lead him to have his photographs recognised by Vogue Italia, with his work exhibited in “The Many Faces of Fashion in PhotoVogue”, as well as being chosen among three other photographers to shoot an exclusive spread for Terrazza Martini for Vogue Italia September issue.

Tarnawczyk winning photo really caught our eye, with the bright, bold yellow background and the large hat that nearly fills the whole frame. The use of a slow shutter speed as well created a delicate, ‘painterly’ quality to the image as well as being beautifully composed.

We had a chat with Tarnawczyk to find out more about his photography, his influence from the legendary Guy Boudin, which lead him to fashion photography and passion for storytelling….

We love your winning image! Could you tell us a bit more about it and how it came about?

Andrew Tarnawczyk

It's a very simple portrait of my friend and model Patrycja. I had this amazing hat from a designer (Diligent Clothes) and was trying to find a way to photograph it, so I decided to create this set. An over sized hat shot on a yellow background created a very minimalist and graphic look, as well as the facial expression of the model added a bit of character to it. Finally, the slower shutter speed that I used brought a "painterly" quality to the photograph. For somebody who likes more technical details: I shot it with Mamiya 645 on Portra 400, natural light only (window light).

Life, life and again life....but also music, film and a good book. I also should say that I got interested in fashion photography because of one legendary photographer - Guy Bourdin.

What's your preferred set up, in terms of camera and film or does it depend on what your shooting?

Andrew Tarnawczyk

Doesn't really matter. I like small 35mm point and shoot, I like medium format, large format. I like everything. When it comes to film - Portra 400 and 800 are my mostly used ones. Especially I like Portra 800 in 35mm. It's grain is perfect.

Your work is a really interesting mixture of portraiture and fashion photography. How would you define your approach?

Andrew Tarnawczyk

I always try to create a small story. I find this aspect of photography to be extremely challenging. An element of surprise is also very important to me. In order to surprise a viewer I often bring unusual styling, posing or unique make up to the photographed scene.

Digital or Analogue?

Andrew Tarnawczyk

Both. My personal work I tend to shoot on film. Most of the commission work I get requires a very fast turn over, therefore it has to be shot digitally. From time to time I do shoot commission on film too.

Hmm. Freedom. Freedom of speech. It`s an unique language. Being able to communicate with your visual work, it's something that makes photography the most interesting language to me.

What's your favourite film and why?

Andrew Tarnawczyk

Portra..... As it's the most forgiving one in my opinion. Does not matter if you overexpose or underexpose - you still get a shot. Very nice skin tones, a bit warm. Portra is very good for black and white conversion too. Saying that I would like to shoot more on Ektar too.

If you could give one piece of advice to future photographers what would that be?

Andrew Tarnawczyk

Find your style. That`s very important. Even if that means spending years on experimenting. Also know the history of photography - it's a must ! And don't give up!

Do you have any future projects that we should keep an eye on?

Andrew Tarnawczyk

I'm planning to do a series of conceptual portraits taken on either medium or large format. Big project - it will involve building some installations specially for it and I'm hoping to have it done before May 2018.

Analogue cameras! I love them ! They are very simple and straight forward :) and the market is full of second hand ones. You can grab a decent classic medium format camera for literally no money these days. I also find the time spent in the darkroom to be kind of magical.

Thank you! Is there anything else you’d like to say to the readers of Film’s not Dead